Getting to Yes on Flood Protection:
T
A Case Study in Army Corps 408 Permitting
he U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Nebraska’s Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District (P-MRNRD) share a common goal of preventing loss of life and property through effective floodplain management. However, while trying to achieve this critical goal, both organizations found themselves struggling to effectively work through a permission process required to perform federally mandated enhancements to existing levees on the Missouri River to ensure public safety during a flooding event. In 2006, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), operating under the Flood Map Modernization Presidential Initiative, began to remap the Missouri River floodplains and update the base flood elevations to ensure
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MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER
GRAPHICS COURTESY OF PAPIO-MISSOURI RIVER NATURAL RESOURCES DISTRICT.
PHOTO COURTESY OF PAPIO-MISSOURI RIVER NATURAL RESOURCES DISTRICT.
Federal levee system south of Omaha, Nebraska.
sufficient freeboard for 100-year flood protection. During the process, two sets of levees operated by the P-MRNRD near Omaha, Nebraska, were identified as needing upgrades to meet FEMA certification. The levee systems, which lie south of Omaha near the confluence of the Missouri and Platte Rivers, protect a sewage treatment plant, multiple rail lines, and Offutt Air Force Base—home to the 55th Wing and the U.S. Strategic Command. According to P-MRNRD General Manager John Winkler, those facilities combine to contribute $1.3 billion in annual economic benefit to Nebraska. Protection of the Air Force base and local industry made obtaining FEMA recertification a top priority not only for P-MRNRD, but also for Sarpy County, surrounding municipalities, and the state of Nebraska. Adding even more weight to the situation, the military was considering Offutt as part of base realignment and potentially moving the 55th Wing. Although the identified levee systems were not in disrepair, even outperforming other levees in a 500-year flood event in 2011, P-MRNRD acted to address the enhancements urgently to ensure reliable protection. In 2011, the district began developing a thorough project plan and discussed the initiative with the Army Corps, which was to certify and permit the project work. Although P-MRNRD knew there would be extensive permitting, the Army Corps was not clear whether a new section 408 permit would apply to this project. John Winkler described how the permitting process unfolded. “When we started the permitting process, it appeared the project might not need a 408 permit; but from the outside, it appeared the Army Corps was struggling to determine what projects the 408 permit should apply to. A few years into the project development process, there was a whole new directive on 408 handed down from [Army Corps] headquarters. It was at that point the Corps determined we needed a 408. We had already moved on. By no means had we started construction, but we were deep into project planning and design and thought we did not need one. However, we had to begin this new permitting process.” In the early part of the decade, many local Army Corps partners, such as P-MRNRD, did not know what the parameters of section 408 permission entailed. Section 14 of the River and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899 (33 U.S.C. 408) provides that the “Secretary of the Army may, on recommendation of the Chief of Engineers, grant permission for the alteration of a public work so long as
